Journal, Cabinet, Multilingual Parlour, Untranslated Conference Room, Repository of Erudite Pastimes, even a Gymnasium for the Polemist and the Humorist; Consacrated to Oddities and Facts Concerning Peculiarities of Theatrical Amusements related to the Circus, Conjuring, Comedy etc.; their Connections with Fine Arts; the Uncovering the Curiosities of their Past, and the Critical and Hopefully Provocative Account of what of Interest is Remaining of their Uncertain Present. Profusely Illustrated.

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Monday, November 27, 2006

Forgotten Acts: KORINGA (1)

There was a time when

the experience of live entertainment assured the same thrills and fascination of the movies. Look at those posters: in the early 20s they gave you the same expectation of a Tarzan flick, but with the promise that Koringa was supposed to be alive, and all her beasts too.Who was Koringa? Where she came from? She could have been the daughter of a maharajah abandoned in the jungle and raised by reptiles; why not the last empress of a lost amazon tribe; or a true goddess fallen from the olympus of magnetists offering to the earth the gift of her supernatural powers.How she left the lost doomed temple where she used to live, arriving to the small vaudeville house just around the drugstore?Little is known about the origins of the “only fakir woman in the world”. All what we were able to unveil, is that in the real world she was probably French. She started as an assistant of Blacaman (another kind of a legend), interpretating one of the nurses during his fakir acts. We believe that the Koringa reptiles act was put toghether as a sort of second unit of the Blacaman company. More on Koringa in the next few days.

We had a very similar act here in America a few years ago. It looks like an exact copy of the lady pictured, hair atyle and all. She was an aftershow and sometime big show feature and went by the name TANET IKAO.

Pietro Blacaman was a cousin of circus and showbiz impresario Pasquale Schettini, both from Castrovillari in Calabria, Southern Italy. After spending some time in South America (early 1930's) they came back to Europe. Pasquale married Gwenda Keary (my Godmother) who was a Millimetre Girl (acrobatic dancer) in Bertram Mills Circus (late 1930's). There's more, but I won't bore you!

Pietro Blacaman was a cousin of circus and showbiz impresario Pasquale Schettini, both from Castrovillari in Calabria, Southern Italy. After spending some time in South America (early 1930's) they came back to Europe. Pasquale married Gwenda Keary (my Godmother) who was a Millimetre Girl (acrobatic dancer) in Bertram Mills Circus (late 1930's). There's more, but I won't bore you!

Pietro Blacaman was a cousin of circus and showbiz impresario Pasquale Schettini, both from Castrovillari in Calabria, Southern Italy. After spending some time in South America (early 1930's) they came back to Europe. Pasquale married Gwenda Keary (my Godmother) who was a Millimetre Girl (acrobatic dancer) in Bertram Mills Circus (late 1930's). There's more, but I won't bore you!

I am sorry, english is not my native language : I have read Blacaman was in Paris in 1925, in Berlin in 1928, and so in Europe. He was announced like Indian Fakir.He performed in my City, Rosario Argentina in 1926.I don't know the real name of Blacaman, and his date of birth. We are talking about the same Blacaman ? It was his name Pietro ?Thanks a lotRegards eduardo

Hi Eduardo. Yes, this must be the very same Pietro Blacaman - the description fits him exactly. He must have been born around 1900-1910. There's a photograph of him at http://schettini.com/Images/PascalBlackerman2.jpg which you might like to look at. I think Blacaman was his real name.

He was in a film with W C Fields called "You Can't Cheat an Honest man". Search for this with Google for more information. I would love to get my hands on a copy of this film!

Raffaele De Ritis

Impostor of the international stage arts, he is said out from a noble estinguished family of Southern Italy. From childhood he attempted escapes to the strolling life. Without refusing an academic theatrical education in Rome and Paris, he began to earn his life in the frequentation of carny barkers, crocodile hypnotists, quick-change virtuosos, aerialists, actors, ballet étoiles.Nobody knows why and when producers began trusting in his directorial services, spreading his signature around the globe: from Savary, Brachetti, or Larible; to American sanctuaries as Big Apple Circus or Cirque du Soleil. It is in his hands that Feld dared to put the concept of Barnum’s Kaleidoscape; and the Princess Grace Theatre of Monte Carlo or Spoleto Festival trusted for magic events or Shakespeare stagings.He wrote books and dictionaries about theatre, circus and magic; his signature infestated in the last 20 years major international circus periodicals. Mentalism, training of escapologists, academic lecturing on silent movies are other ways to assure his existence besides writing and directing.Mixing forgotten Martini recipes and tracking theatrical memorabilia are his beloved pastimes.